Tag archives: art
Deepest childhood is sometimes recalled as a shadowy dreamscape daubed with startling bursts of color. From that protean sub-basement “mother” ascends the stairs into the light, smiling that smile, and so forth. It’s complicated, as they say. We think of Mom and language fails, obliging us to fall back on gauzy flowers and little heart-shaped […]
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art Women’s Board held its first of two fundraising soirées, titled, “Art à la Carte,” at the University Club on Monday, March 25. The lovely event featured an in-depth artist talk with Iraqi American abstract artist Vian Sora, and the museum’s Contemporary Art Curator James Glisson,PhD. The opening cocktail hour […]
A group donning Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree’s elegant hats visited the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art to honor their late friend on March 21. Hiroko Benko, Brenda Blalock, Chris Frisina, Mary Gates, Erin Graffy, Bobbie Kinnear, Nan Marr, Joyce Shaar, and Grace Yoon toured Ridley-Tree’s entire collection of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot that she gave to the museum. […]
Six aspiring Westmont art graduates will exhibit their capstone projects at Between Moments from April 4-May 4 in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. A free, public opening reception will celebrate the graduating senior art majors on Thursday, April 4, from 4-6 pm. The students include Danielle Anderson of Palm Desert; Clare Carey of Bonsall; […]
In keeping with the celebration of March 2024 as Women’s History Month (spoiler alert!) this column is going to contain some seriously shameless bragging! At the close of this month I’d like to send the memo that, both in a professional capacity and as volunteers, every month of any year Santa Barbara women make huge […]
Self-taught eco-artist Jami Joelle Nielsen asked 11 other local artists to create new works using recycled materials and centered on an environmental issue of their choice – including climate change, threatened species, fast fashion, problems facing pollinators, wildfires, tech and landfill waste, ocean plastics pollution, deforestation, and others. The result is The Recycled Show: No […]
Just four months after moving into Casa Dorinda, artist Victoria Furst Hines has lost no time in making her mark. Victoria, who with her late husband Carter ran a popular Montecito drapery business, has displayed 36 of her colorful works in oil, acrylic and watercolor, just a tiara’s toss from the home’s capacious dining room […]
The SoCal Museums organization is holding its 19th Annual Museums Free All Day event on Saturday, March 23. This free ticket covers all ages for general admission at over 30 museums from Santa Barbara County through Los Angeles County. The museums participating cover the arts, cultural heritage, natural history, and science. And the free day […]
A New Yorker, iconoclast, and pioneering expressionist painter and printmaker, Cecily Barth Firestein’s “career” as an artist paralleled – and was subordinate to – what she would surely have described as her first calling of wife and mother. Therein lies a story. Firestein’s large format wonders will be on display in the Funk Zone’s communal […]
LM sends me a photo of a terra cotta bust (at 30” tall) of a gorgeous young French female of the late 18th century. Her beauty is classic even today: flowing hair, effortless smile, full cheeks, upturned almond shaped eyes, a heart-shaped face. Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) was not only one of […]
There is something very exciting happening at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum! Of course, there are always exciting things going on at SBMM, however this is something very special to be enjoyed (and loved!) by the entire family. Having opened on Wednesday, February 8th, the Maritime Museum’s new exhibit, ICE BEAR, puts on display a […]
Starting off Black History Month I attended the lecture by Joan Kee PhD, JD on “The Geometries of Afro Asia: Art beyond Solidarity,” on Friday, February 2, the Art Matters series at SB Museum of Art. Kee is a Professor of Art History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The lecture title, the same as her […]
The Ritz-Carlton Bacara Santa Barbara announced its first Artist-in-Residence, Benjamin Anderson, who had overseen the photography exhibit of Jean-Michel Cousteau at the Bacara in November 2023. Impressed with his work, they offered him this new position. He will be curating new art shows monthly in the hotel’s main lobby area. Anderson has been a Santa […]
Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree’s entire collection of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot artworks – which includes 11 paintings, 12 lithographs, and a drawing – goes on display Jan. 11 – March 23 in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. A free public opening reception for the exhibition, Camille Corot to Orthodox Icons: Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree’s Gifts to the Collection, […]
In a most progressive move, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) has acquired the iconic artwork, Den Hvide Dør (The White Door), 1888, oil on canvas, by artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916), and has dedicated it in honor of Larry J. Feinberg, the SBMA distinguished Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Executive Director and CEO, who was […]
The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art’s exhibition and auction of 683 small pieces was a huge success. By the time the gavel came down December 15, the “5×5” fundraiser sold 617 unique art pieces, raising more than $41,000 for the Montecito museum. Ninety-two percent of people who created an account bid on works in the […]
Natalie Olivas,owner-director of the Helena Mason Art Gallery, held an impromptu holiday party open house on Wednesday, December 13, to promote local event professionals, the gallery as an event space for rent, and the art on the walls by Pedro de la Cruz, Chris Gocong, Bob Hernandez, and Rod Lathim. The placement of the art […]
A lively and enthusiastic crowd packed into the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art for the opening reception of “5×5: Westmont College Celebrating 85 Years” on November 30. There is certainly a lot to see with more than 675 small pieces of art hung in the gallery – all of which are being auctioned off to […]
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) Board of Trustees held its sponsor supported Black Tie Autumn Dinner titled “Art’s Artful Affairs: Seasons of Change” at the museum on Wednesday, November 15, from 5:30 to 9 pm. The elegant event commenced with a champagne and wine reception in the museum’s Ludington Court Gallery amidst the […]
There are people who so inhabit and illuminate their respective epochs, their lives can seem almost foreordained. Add to that list a starry-eyed surfer from Houston named Rick Sharp, whose canon of poster art so deeply captures the ‘70s ambiance it can truly be said to have helped define it. Sharp will be discussing and […]
